The Minnesota Wilderness cruised to two victories over the Chippewa Steel this weekend and extended their early season winning streak to 8 games.
The home weekend series began with a 9-1 thrashing Friday night, followed by a 7-1 victory Saturday night.
Minnesota (12-1-1) also saw a dominating performance from its power-play, which generated eight goals on 17 chances.
In Friday’s contest, the Wilderness tied four franchise home records: Most goals in a single game (9), most goals in a period (5), most power play goals in a single game (5), and most power play goals in a period (3).
This weekend was the first of three consecutive home series for the Wilderness. They’ll next host the Wisconsin Windigo on Oct. 24-25, with games scheduled to start at 7:15 p.m.
Friday: Wilderness 9, Chippewa 1
The Wilderness melted the Steel thanks to five power play goals in their second 9-goal game of the season.
Jakeb Lynch and Noah Dziver led the offensive charge with each generating two goals and two assists. The Wilderness also saw Nate Murray and Talan Blanck finish with three points, with Murray posting three assists and Blanck recording one goal and two assists.
Jackson Reeves, Jackson Knight, Robinson Djian and Olle Karlsson all fired in one goal while Zach Howard and Avery Anderson each recorded one assist.
Goaltender Ryan Gerlich kept out 21 of 22 Chippewa shots for his third straight victory to improve his record to 3-0-1.
Minnesota broke the game open in the first period when it scored on each of its first three power plays. Dziver struck twice and Lynch once with the extra man during the opening 20 minutes. Djian and Knight added even strength tallies en route to a 5-goal first frame.
Chippewa cut the Wilderness lead to four thanks to a power play goal from Mason Johnson with 2:19 left in the first period.
Reeves then restored the lead back to five when he deposited the game’s only 2nd period score.
A 5-on-3 power play then led to Blanck lighting the lamp for Minnesota’s 4 th goal with the man-advantage 4:43 into the third period. That was followed just 55 seconds later when Karlsson notched the team’s fifth tally with the extra man.
Lynch then closed out the scoring with his 2nd of the game with just 13 seconds left in regulation when he converted on a 2-on-1 with Blanck.
The Wilderness outshot Chippewa, 33-22.
The Steel used two goaltenders. Noel Friedman started the game, stopping three of six Wilderness shots while playing just under 10 minutes. He was relieved by Alex Reedy who played 50:03 making 21 saves on 27 shots.
On the man-advantage, Minnesota finished 5-for-9, while Chippewa went 1-for-4.
Saturday: Wilderness 7, Chippewa 1
River Freeman and Jackson Knight each scored twice to power the Wilderness to a second consecutive lopsided win over the Chippewa Steel.
Jakeb Lynch, Zach Homer and Talan Blanck added single goals. Avery Anderson also made an impact with three assists. 2-assist performances came from Noah Dziver, Andrei Gudin and Nate Murray, while Bryce Dahl, Logan Nagle and Jackson Reeves added single helpers.
In addition, Minnesota’s power play had another strong, going 3-for-8.
Minnesota pumped in three goals in the first and second periods, and got the scoring started early in each frame.
Homer opened the scoring in the first period just 1:37 after the opening faceoff with his 9th of the season. He was followed by Freeman’s two tallies, with 8:12 left and then on the power play with 3:16 left.
Lynch’s 4th of the season got the 2nd period party started. His rocket that went bar-down at the 1:47 mark was the squad’s 2nd on the man-advantage of the night, and gave Minnesota a commanding 4-0 lead.
Knight then followed with his 2 tallies. His red-lighters at the 3:37 and 7:10 marks of the middle frame doubled his season goal total to four.
Sam Schulte would give Chippewa (1-8-1) a sliver of hope when he posted a power play goal with 8:39 left to cut Minnesota’s lead to 6-1.
That score would hold through the end of the 2nd period, but the Wilderness added one more in the third period. This would come from Blanck when he fired in his 7th of the year as the Wilderness worked on a 2-man advantage with 10:28 remaining.
The Wilderness outshot Chippewa 44-30.
In net, Valdemar Andersen shined, making 29 saves on 30 Chippewa shots to improve his spotless record to 8-0.
Steel goaltender Alex Reedy made 37 saves to take the loss.
Chippewa went 1-for-4 on the man-advantage.